Cat Ba Day 3 | chossclimbers.com

Go back to Cat Ba Day 2.
Go back to Vietnam.

Spelunking on Chu Bien Tower.

On the third day, we headed for a newly established I Wish I Had New Underpants route on Chu Bien’s tower, 3 short pitches and rated 5c. Relatively untrodden rock here was positively razor blade sharp. Falling was absolutely out of the question (mental images of sliced limbs, severed arteries, and cut ropes). A cool climb though: you do a short pitch from the waterline into the cave and out through a small window onto a face of the tower. Two more short pitches put you near the summit. As this is a new line (reportedly, ours was a 4th or 5th ascent), the best rap line is still being determined. Well, we chose poorly and got our twins stuck. The thought of prussiking back up was highly unappealing (razor rock and thin ropes are a poor combo) but fortunately our driver had a different solution in mind: he tied one of the ropes to the stern of the boat and gunned the motor (video here). We figured that we’d witness one of three outcomes: the rope would snap (bad but unlikely), tat anchor would pull off with some rocks (worse), or the boat would break apart (worst). In fact, the ropes eventually pulled and after fishing 140 meters of twins out of the sea we saw no damage on the cords. As we were running out of interesting routes, we decided to burn the afternoon on some very scenic kayaking in the bay.

Photos

Basket and junk boats in port (Nov. 2018).

Shuttling over to our junk boat (Nov. 2018).

Shirley on the junk boat (Nov. 2018).

Ha Long Bay (Nov. 2018).

A floating settlement (Nov. 2018).

Ha Long Bay sights (Nov. 2018).

Ha Long Bay and its countless limestone karats (Nov. 2018).

Racked up and ready to go (Nov. 2018).

Getting ready to climb I Wish I Had New Underpants route on Chu Bien Tower. Photo by Andrew (Nov. 2018).

Happy Shirley at a stance at the base of Chu Bien Tower (Nov. 2018).

The first and unique pitch of I Wish I Had New Underpants route on Chu Bien Tower (Nov. 2018).

Trying to squeeze through the window that marks the end of pitch 1 (Nov. 2018).

Fun and unique pitch 1 (Nov. 2018).

Shirley climbing the short pitch 1 (Nov. 2018).

Shirley following pitch 1 (Nov. 2018).

Popping out of the window (Nov. 2018).

At the pitch 1 belay. Photo by Andrew (Nov. 2018).

Starting the lead of pitch 2 of I Wish I Had New Underpants (Nov. 2018).

Leading pitch 2 – the ass shot perspective (Nov. 2018).

Leading pitch 2 – the much better third person perspective. Photo by Andrew (Nov. 2018).

A basket boat seen from Chu Bien Tower (Nov. 2018).

Shirley starting up pitch 2. Photo by Andrew (Nov. 2018).

Shirley on the super sharp pitch 2 (Nov. 2018).

Shirley following pitch 2 (Nov. 2018).

Topping out on pitch 2 (Nov. 2018).

Shirley on a spacious ledge atop pitch 2 (Nov. 2018).

Looking back at Shirley from the lead of pitch 3 (Nov. 2018).

Shirley following the third and final pitch of I Wish I Had New Underpants (Nov. 2018).

Views from the top of the route (Nov. 2018).

Shirley high on pitch 3 (Nov. 2018).

Shirley arriving at the top of the route (Nov. 2018).

Rapping back to the boat. Not an optimal set up with some really sharp edges vs. shitty rope pull angle (Nov. 2018).

Fishing out our twins (Nov. 2018).

Back in Chu Bien’s boat (Nov. 2018).

Ha Long Bay activity (Nov. 2018).

The floating settlement where we started the kayak tour (Nov. 2018).

Look at that concrete boat!

On our way to check out a giant fish on a floating settlement (Nov. 2018).

A huge grouper fish being kept captive by the owners of the floating establishment. This is reportedly an investment vehicle for some people living on the Bay (Nov. 2018).